There are those people who find this kind of thing interesting, and those who have no interest -- I put it behind the jump for the benefit of the latter!

Oh, comics! The agile arbiter of zeitgeist; the enabler of cash flow; the avatar of tastemaking! How how much I treasure you!

What follow is a list of the best-selling comics, for the singular Comix Experience, as of 12/31/13, at 5:54 PM. The store is still technically open for another hour and six minutes, but I don't think we'll significantly change this chart in that time.

This does NOT contain the charts for Comic Outpost because a) I've only owned it a fortnight, and b) we had silly computer problems in week #1, so much of the sales are registered to a generic "miscellaneous comic" code, and not the specific book that specifically sold. Ah, but 2014 will allow me to present combined charts and differences, and ah! I can not wait!

I've also pulled out "Quarter Comics", "Generic Back Issue", "Dollar Comics" and "Starter Set", which were otherwise our #1 to #4 items in the "comics" category. We sold 22x times the number of "quarter comics" as we did of Actual Comic #1, and I still think to myself, "We're not liquidating the cheapest crap fast enough". Go figure! (That's because it accumulates quickly -- "death of a thousand papercuts" is the rule for most stores, I believe)

Clearly, as you can see from what follows, 2013 is Image's year. 9 of the top 10, 13 of the top 20, 32 of the Top 50 -- that's a performance to be proud of. The second half of the year, especially, has had hot launch after hot launch, and Image right now feels like me to be like Vertigo circa 1993.

I have at least one note -- because Comix Experience (prime) is pretty much against the multiple cover as a moral stance, we treat them as distinct SKUs -- except that SANDMAN OVERTURE performed very very well with BOTH covers. So the net impact is that the COMBINED value of the Dave McKean and JH Williams' covers would actually make it our #1 book for the year, by about a 20% margin. Too bad we're stuck until February for issue #2 with no (as far as I know) co-op or returnability cushion to help us promote that it finally came out. In some ways, this is the absolute worst case scenario for a civilian/lapsed-driven book like OVERTURE -- a lot of dollars are going to be lost because of the lack of follow-through.

1

SAGA #13

2

SAGA #14

3

SAGA #15

4

SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) McKean Cover

5

SAGA #11

6

SAGA #12

7

SAGA #16

8

SAGA #10

9

SAGA #9

10

JUPITERS LEGACY #1

11

SEX CRIMINALS #1

12

SAGA #17

13

EAST OF WEST #1

14

BATMAN #21

15

BATMAN #17

16

BATMAN INCORPORATED #8

SAGA #8

18

BATMAN #16

19

BATMAN #22

20

SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) JHW cover

21

EAST OF WEST #2

22

BATMAN #23

23

SEX CRIMINALS #2

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1

25

UNCANNY X-MEN #1 NOW

BATMAN #20

INFINITY #1 (OF 6)

WALKING DEAD #106

29

WALKING DEAD #109

JUPITERS LEGACY #2

VELVET #1

32

WALKING DEAD #110

WALKING DEAD #111

BLACK SCIENCE #1

WALKING DEAD #108

WALKING DEAD #112

37

BATMAN #19

GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW

HELLBOY IN HELL #2

PRETTY DEADLY #1

41

BATMAN #25

BATMAN SUPERMAN #1

HELLBOY IN HELL #3

WALKING DEAD #107

WALKING DEAD #113

WALKING DEAD #115

47

BATMAN #24

EAST OF WEST #3

WALKING DEAD #116

50

AGE OF ULTRON #1 (OF 10)

EAST OF WEST #4

JUPITERS LEGACY #3

SEX CRIMINALS #3

THE STAR WARS (LUCAS DRAFT) #1 (OF 8)

WALKING DEAD #114

56

BATMAN INCORPORATED #9

INFINITY #3 (OF 6)

OPTIC NERVE #13

59

HAWKEYE #8

EAST OF WEST #6

SAGA #7

62

HAWKEYE #10

HELLBOY IN HELL #4

64

BATMAN ANNUAL #2

GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #0.1 NOW

STAR WARS ONGOING #2

WALKING DEAD #117

X-MEN #1 NOW

69

BATMAN INCORPORATED #10

STAR WARS ONGOING #1

71

LAZARUS #1

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1

BATMAN INCORPORATED #6

EAST OF WEST #5

HAWKEYE #7

HAWKEYE #9

PRETTY DEADLY #2

UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW

79

JUSTICE LEAGUE #22

AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10)

AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10)

EAST OF WEST #7

FOREVER EVIL #1 (OF 7)

84

AVENGERS #3 NOW

BATMAN INCORPORATED #7

GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 NOW

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2

TRILLIUM #1 (OF 8)

VELVET #2

90

BATMAN SUPERMAN #2

BLACK SCIENCE #2

INFINITY #2 (OF 6)

SHAOLIN COWBOY #1

TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6)

WALKING DEAD #118

96

ACTION COMICS #16

JUSTICE LEAGUE #16

HAWKEYE #11

INFINITY #4 (OF 6)

WAKE #1 (OF 10)

However, I am in the business of making money, so in many ways, what is more important is not how many copies were sold, but how many dollars were generated. If I sort the chart that way, then you can see that DC (and especially Marvel) do much much better -- SANDMAN OVERTURE, in particular, exceeds SAGA #13 by more than 200%

Still, you can see the value of the $3.99+ cover price here?

1

SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) McKean Cover

2

SAGA #13

3

SAGA #14

4

BATMAN #24

5

SAGA #15

6

SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) JHW cover

7

SAGA #11

SAGA #12

9

SAGA #16

10

SAGA #10

11

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1

12

SAGA #9

13

INFINITY #1 (OF 6)

14

BATMAN #21

15

OPTIC NERVE #13

16

SEX CRIMINALS #1

17

BATMAN #17

18

DETECTIVE COMICS #19

19

BATMAN #16

20

BATMAN #22

21

BATMAN #25

22

EAST OF WEST #1

23

JUPITERS LEGACY #1

24

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700

25

BATMAN #23

26

UNCANNY X-MEN #1 NOW

27

BATMAN #20

28

BATMAN ANNUAL #2

29

SAGA #17

30

INFINITY #6 (OF 6)

31

EAST OF WEST #2

32

BATMAN #18

33

GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW

BATMAN SUPERMAN #1

35

SEX CRIMINALS #2

36

BATMAN #19

37

SAGA #8

38

BATMAN INCORPORATED #8

39

AGE OF ULTRON #1 FOIL CVR (OF 10)

STAR WARS #1 (OF 8)

40

VELVET #1

41

BLACK SCIENCE #1

42

HAWKEYE ANNUAL #1

43

INFINITY #3 (OF 6)

44

PRETTY DEADLY #1

45

GREEN LANTERN #20

46

ACTION COMICS #18

47

EAST OF WEST #3

48

X-MEN #1 NOW

49

GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #0.1 NOW

50

EAST OF WEST #4

51

SEX CRIMINALS #3

52

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1

53

WALKING DEAD #109

WALKING DEAD #106

55

JUPITERS LEGACY #2

56

JUSTICE LEAGUE #22

57

WALKING DEAD #110

WALKING DEAD #111

59

FOREVER EVIL #1 (OF 7)

60

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2

61

WALKING DEAD #108

WALKING DEAD #112

63

GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 NOW

64

EAST OF WEST #6

65

BATMAN SUPERMAN #2

SHAOLIN COWBOY #1

68

AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10)

69

HELLBOY IN HELL #2

70

INFINITY #2 (OF 6)

TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6)

72

HELLBOY IN HELL #3

73

ACTION COMICS #16

JUSTICE LEAGUE #16

AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10)

76

AVENGERS #3 NOW

77

UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW

78

WALKING DEAD #107

WALKING DEAD #113

WALKING DEAD #115

81

INFINITY #4 (OF 6)

82

WALKING DEAD #116

83

ALL NEW X-MEN #6 NOW2

84

ALL NEW X-MEN #5

85

GOD IS DEAD #1 (OF 6)

86

JUPITERS LEGACY #3

87

EAST OF WEST #5

88

DETECTIVE COMICS #18

89

PRETTY DEADLY #2

90

WALKING DEAD #114

91

EAST OF WEST #7

92

ALL NEW X-MEN #9 NOW

JUSTICE LEAGUE #23

ALL NEW X-MEN #7 NOW2

ALL NEW X-MEN #10 NOW

DETECTIVE COMICS #16

97

X-MEN BATTLE OF ATOM #1 (OF 2)

98

INFINITY #5 (OF 6)

99

BATMAN INCORPORATED #9

100

BATMAN #26

Right, so give me some comments, kids -- spot a pattern I didn't or something?